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Hello Everyone!
We have just returned to Auckland after a 1677km jaunt around the beautiful, and occasionally very wild, east coast of North Island. On the outward journey we visited the Coromandel peninsula with the picturesque islands of Mercury Bay, beach-walked through the sea arch of Cathedral Cove, stayed in a charming colonial-style B+B high above the sea in St Michael's Mount-like Tairua, re-traced the steps of a previous visit to the gold-mining town of Waihi, discovered the spectacular surfing beaches at Waihi and Kohloawa, faced the challenging twists and turns of the Cheddar Valley Road between Ohope and Kutarere, met up with Sue and Dave Foakes to witness at first hand the trials and tribulations of kiwi-fruit harvesting and gate-crashed a Maori's 18th birthday party at the RSA Club in Opotiki. Ho hum... just another typical few days in New Zealand...
...On the return trip we drove between Maori settlements to circumnavigate one classic-shaped volcano, Putauaki Mount Edgecumbe, and ate lunch beneath another, the 'Topless' Mount Tarawera, near the thermally-active area of Lake Rotorua. Finally, we drove across the Waitomo Ranges and the Kaimai Mamaku Forest Park to meet up with SH1 at Huntley, about an hour south of Auckland, which took us back to Sue and Dave's house on the North Shore.
That 1677km takes our total kilometre-age to well over 8000 (5000+ miles) during our time in Australia (Nissan X-trail), South Island (Volkswagen campervan) and North Island (Dave and Sue's Toyota 4x4 - thanks, Dave!).
Fortunately, petrol per litre averages $NZ1.58 and diesel per litre $NZ0.98 (about 61p and 38p respectively) so the wallet hasn't taken too much of a battering. In addition, most supermarkets give '4 cents off per litre' dockets with purchases over $40 (fifteen quid) so the purchase of a few groceries soon gains a fuel discount. One supermarket, Pak'n'Save, gives 6 cents off if the fuel is bought at the same store.
Although New Zealand is about the same size as the UK, towns are often very far apart and if someone in one of the more remote locations needs to do some serious shopping (new washing machine, a laptop or a component for a milking machine, for instance) it is not unusual to do a 300km round trip, maybe half of it before breakfast. Auckland has a 100km section of (mostly) two-lane motorway running from Warkworth in the north, over the harbour bridge and through the city to Bombay in the south, which is part of the country-long State Highway 1. Most other roads are single carriageway with an occasional additional lane for overtaking on gradients. The national speed limit is 100km/h with 80 on the twisty bits, 70 on the approach to towns and 50 through town. The longest 'straight' is 25km long (Tram Road near Christchurch) but most roads have an abundance of horizontal swerves and vertical swoops. Any serious bend has a 'safe' advisory speed marker but nothing to stop you flying over the edge of a precipitous drop if you get it wrong. Nevertheless, driving is a joy compared to the UK; there's very little traffic out of the main towns and a reasonably good and stress-free average can be attained. And,of course, the scenery is ever-changing and spectacular!
I have just been out on the deck, where it is hammering down with rain! Great globules the size of raisins, boucing in a mist two feet high from the top of the handrail! The air is saturated and heavy, reminding us that this part of New Zealand is almost sub-tropical. This has been the first serious rain we have seen on this trip to New Zealand - we have been really fortunate with the weather.
The singular glitch in our travel plans came on Saturday evening, when we telephoned Air New Zealand from our motel out in remote Opotiki to confirm our flight to San Francisco on Tuesday, only to be told that they don't fly out on a Tuesday! An emergency call to the travel agents in Rawtensall has rectified matters so we will fly out on Wednesday, meaning we have one day less in SF before (we hope!) being back in the UK as planned, on Saturday 25th April.
Have a look at the latest file of photos, to be added when I have recharged the camera batteries. Unless we find something really interesting to do with our extra day in a wet Auckland, it should be the last set to appear until we have 'done' San Francisco in a somewhat hurried and curtailed manner!
Best wishes to all,
Dave and Denise
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